The Churning of Skid Row: A Genealogy of Development, Gentrification, and Displacement

• Date: 01 March 2020
• Author: Pesach Chananiah
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12329
• Published date: 01 March 2020

The Churning of Skid Row: A Genealogy

of Development, Gentrification, and

Displacement

By Pesach chananiah

abstract. The last two decades have seen striking changes to

downtown Los Angeles’s population. While phrases like “renewal” or

“revitalization” pepper the discourse around new urban investment,

the reality has been a shocking displacement of those living in single

room occupancy (SRO) hotel units—and in tents throughout the area

known as Skid Row. Beneath the competing interests of affordable

housing advocates, on the one hand, and the public relations

campaigns of the private and public sectors, on the other, lie the very

real material and discursive forces that are taking the lead. Collective

memory is often too short to see historic trends, yet to approximate

a grasp of them is to gain ground in a seemingly chaotic present.

Through a depth approach to journalistic sources, power analyses,

and stakeholder interviews, this article investigates and interrogates

the various discourses at play in gentrification media—government,

financial interests, individual actors, and judicial bodies. Its purpose is

to illustrate systemic causes of urban oppression and trauma in order

to inform future attempts to both understand and intervene in the

uprooting of communities.

Introduction

When locals of Los Angeles discuss the changes in the downtown area

over the last decade or so, there is often a sense of amazement. A new

skyline has been constructed, and other buildings have been demol-

ished. Cognoscenti of urban politics, however, will point to a casualty

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 79, No. 2 (March, 2020).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12329

© 2020 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.

*Community organizer, depth psychologist, and urban anthropologist. Specializes in

empowerment praxis, liberatory pedagogy, and urban alchemy. First immersed in the

fault lines of Skid Row as an intern-organizer with the Los Angeles Community Action

Network, early in the gentrification process. This experience continues to frame his

work and life. E-mail: pesach.chananiah@gmail.com

476 The American Journal of Economics and Sociology

of so-called capitalist progress: the displacement of those who refer to

Skid Row as home. For years, much of downtown east of Broadway was

somewhere few would venture. In recent years, as the area has seen a

change that some call “revitalization,” one of the few neighborhoods

with a concentration of affordable housing has come under attack. Some

even argue that the housing crisis currently facing the entirety of Los

Angeles was first seen 20 years prior, as single room occupancy (SRO)

residential hotel rooms became converted into luxury lofts.

While downtown has been lauded for recent development, what

has gone relatively unseen is the process of displacement. Hartman

et al. (1982: 3) define displacees as people who have been “engi-

neered out of their traditional neighborhoods, to make way for new

occupants deemed more ‘desirable’ because of the color of their skins,

the taxes they will pay, or the ‘life style’ they lead.” This definition

would include those people who have been evicted from their build-

ings so the owner can convert to higher income housing. It also in-

cludes those who live on the streets and have been arrested or forced

to move.

Many of the people currently on the street were previously victims

of eviction and now live on the street. Having organized with home-

less people on Skid Row, I shall be referencing, throughout this arti-

cle, my conversations with them and other displaced people. Linda, a

58-year-old black woman standing outside of a soup kitchen, told me:

[They’re] trying to move the homeless out. … Pushing people under the

6thSt. bridge. …. You can’t sit down or they run up on you. It’s getting

very tiresome. If you go to USC County Hospital, when they know you are

from Skid Row, they think you are there because of drugs. That’s insulting,

especially for blacks.

The Skid Row community, also known as Central City East, is the

50-block space bordered by 3rd St. and 7th St., Main and Alameda.

(See Figure 1.) Known for its light industrial landscape, it is currently

occupied by a community of people in tents. Often called the Nickel,

because it is bisected by 5th St., this community has a distinct vital-

ity, as well as a plethora of challenges. Skid Row is at times nonstop

action; at times, it is a ghost town.

477Churning of Skid Row

Figure 1

Map of Downtown Los Angeles

Source: Dr. Blofeld - opens treet map.org, License: CC BY-SA 2.0, https://

commo ns.wikim edia.org/w/index.php?curid =10368510

Skid Row: E-W bounds: Alameda (reddish vertical street right of center) to

Main Street, which branches off from Alameda above Union Station (upper

center right) and runs to lower left corner. N-S bounds: 3rd and 7th Streets.

Bunker Hill: E-W boundaries: Grand & Figueroa; N-S bounds: 2nd and 4th

Streets.

Main Street is the current line of advance of business gentrification of the

downtown area. Two grandiose homeless shelters have built on Wall Street,

the yellow (unnamed) street running southwest from Third St.

Historic Downtown LA Retail Project (created by city-developer partnership):

EW bounds: Main and Hill streets; N-S bounds: 3rd and 9th Streets.